Charmaine Poh Named Deutsche Bank “Artist of the Year”
By EMILY CHEUNG
Portrait of CHARMAINE POH. Photo by Muhammad Fadli. Courtesy the artist.
On November 28, German financial giant Deutsche Bank named Singaporean Chinese artist Charmaine Poh its “Artist of the Year” for 2025. The award is presented to emerging artists producing socially engaged works that incorporate paper and photography—two key elements of Deutsche Bank’s collection.
Based between Singapore and Berlin, Poh draws inspiration from Asian philosophy
and cyberfeminism to create films, performances, and installations that explore
the social construction of identity and re-examine notions of queerness and
femininity in Asia. According to Stephanie Rosenthal, one of the jurors for
this year’s prize and director of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Poh’s practice “critically
examines societal issues, focusing on the stigmatization of queer communities.”
Britta Färber, global head of art and culture at Deutsche Bank, remarked that Poh’s
“gentle, even vulnerable works vehemently contradict the harshness with which
minorities, the socially vulnerable, and those in need of protection are
persecuted and marginalized today.”
Poh is a member of the Asian Feminist Studio for Art and Research (AFSAR) and
cofounder of Jom, an independent magazine published in Singapore. Her
work was shown in the main exhibition of the 60th Venice Biennale, and in
late 2025 she will present a solo exhibition at the PalaisPopulaire in
Berlin.
Emily Cheung is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.
